britain squares up to three of the world's top earning corporations queues of skirting around billions in taxes. from love triangle to pentagon problem the scandal that brought down cia chief david petraeus drugs in america's commander in afghanistan with washington all the while claiming it knew nothing. and syria's new patchwork opposition fails to get you know the most backing among arab states doubts of the foreign form the blog and so use of the syrian people's interests.

it is just after five pm on tuesday here in moscow this is are with me rove research hard pressed to for cash from austerity britain is turning on tax avoiders to help make up its budget shortfall now it's gunning for google by amazon and starbucks first on the list the tax man wants to question them over billions in revenue in britain but only paying peppercorn taxes if any more on this i spoke a bit earlier to ati's polyploid. these are three companies that dominate the u.k. economy they have billions of pounds worth of tarnow there but it looks like they pay very little corporation tax to show for it and now m.p.'s are outraged by the fact that through very loopholes these companies that they say are acting in an immoral way are managing to dodge millions and billions of pounds worth of tax every single year and they want to try and put a stop to it now. well what about i mean the companies we talk about this being

called it moral just how did the companies manage to contribute so little or nothing to the treasury without actually breaking the law so certainly a big mystery well it's all a case of financial trickery rory it's about getting clever accountants that find countries with more favorable tax rates to base a u.k. headquarters and say for example google base themselves in the republic of ireland that's way that that's where they sell their advertising space from starbucks abased in holland and amazon based in luxembourg so they managed to pay very little taxes through channeling their revenue through these countries are part of public reaction sure surely surely there must be a people of the public or even m.p.'s who outspoken about this unfortunately rory for much of the ordinary public here in the u.k. it's just not funny anymore they say that you know austerity measures are taking hold in the public spending cuts in the public sent sex are really making life

difficult for people and we spoke to a few people out on the streets and this is what they told us if we're paying tax on things like. that we have to foot the bill for that i guess we're paying tax on coffee as well why should they not pay the tax that. i guess is up to something close to three days that's still legacies you tend to take is that. we think it's fair but you still buy starbucks it's not this is some activists have already suggested a plan to highlight what they're calling this a moral behavior so if you have at least one of the companies what exactly has been suggested so far yes well this. group of these campaigners against austerity measures here in the u.k. they say that in december they're going to launch a national day of action against starbucks what they're going to do is they're going to occupy the multitude of starbucks coffee. houses that we have here in

london you walk down the street you see them everywhere and they're going to make them into the homeless shelter they're going to make them into refuges into precious because they say that starbucks have these immoral tactics and they need to give back to society so they're going to be occupying these coffee houses but indeed it's not just the anti cup campaign as there's a general feeling among the british public that people want to boycott these new large amount multinational companies because of their immoral schemes in the way that they do just take from the public and very little back into the u.k. economy which as we know is struggling at the moment and really for people here in the u.k. very difficult to make ends meet at the moment so this is a topic that's rousing a lot of anger from the british public. there in london and while britain hunts for tax avoiders to cover its deficit it's still austerity all the way for portugal but the german chancellor personally reassured lisbon saying that pay cuts and tax

hikes painful will save it but i agree citizens are not buying her optimism. for now as if losing the cia director david petraeus over having an affair last week wasn't enough now washington's chief commander in afghanistan has become embroiled in the same scandal petraeus stood down last friday after admitting to infidelity but the story does not and general john allen who commands nato troops in afghanistan is being accused of exchanging you know procreative e-mails with jill kelley she was the woman who competed for patricia's affections with his barbara for what role general allen had in all of this ranging question which is all of these guys nature can report so they could be more than just love in the. whole of broadwell general petraeus is biographer slosh mistress gave a speech last month and in that speech she revealed details about the big dogs the attack that were at. time unknown to the public she gave this speech at the end of

october fifth now when everybody knows that she had an affair with a general many are guessing whether those details that she revealed in her speech were part of their pillow talk take a listen i don't know a lot of you heard this but d.c. and extend actually had taken a couple of libyan militia members prisoner and they think that the attack on the consulate was an effort to try to get these prisoners back so that it's still being vetted to challenging thing for general to transit is that in his new position he's not allowed to communicate with the press by the way the cia adamantly denies the allegations that they held prisoners at the consulate in benghazi and nobody at that point heard anything about the cia holding prisoners in benghazi but everybody knew about the access that paula broadwell had to the general because she was his biographer now it turns out that she had an even greater access to the general when general petraeus was signed he cited his own extremely poor judgment and some are wondering whether their poor judgment was just about the affair or it could also be

about having shared more with his mistress than just pleasant moments together there's another twist to this story apparently paula broadwell was not the kind to keep things to herself the f.b.i. were investigating her allegedly caressing the e-mail sent to another woman who also happens to know general petraeus and as officials here are saying that's how they found out about the affair general petraeus was idolised the public had to go through a similar trauma if you will with the other again and then general who was also idolized in many ways general stanley mcchrystal he fell from grace and resigned when the rolling stone magazine quoted him saying unflattering things around the administration from the media here of course we've seen all over this where you stand or when they learned that there was another woman involved it got them spinning all over again with her discussions about the level of testosterone affects a man's judgment and all kinds of things they savored every detail of this story and one thing that was actually. sad to watch is that. what the agency and i mean

the cia is actually doing doesn't get that much coverage things like how they pick the targets because targeted assassination program things that the public should want to know if national security and it's secret but when it comes to the director's bedroom all of a sudden everybody wants to know and the media are there to question every detail of the affair as far as let's say collateral damage from cia drone strikes not as interested. for more perspective on the resignation off on the implication of general allen in the sky to listen our talk of someone who's very familiar with how the intelligence community is functioning joining me now here in our former m i five intelligence officer sean a pleasure to see you today let's get right to it another to general john allen this being dragged into this whole mess of making it basically three u.s. afghan commandos falling to petty scandals in as many years what do you make of it . well it's that you need to i can pretty well recall drama really if there was

some sense that it's not a bomb that has been. the second time they can usually use the freedom to speak the old regime. senior generals who sort of move through the revolving door between military positions the intelligence issues might take some. strategic positions on the issues in the middle east one of the points that doesn't seem to get much coverage about the trial and that is the fact that he has been very much under review for really pushing who the idea that there should be some sort of military action against iran. when you say you. can start. your own ideas on the side to see who can stop you couldn't cope with this so i am wondering if the timing here which of course. is absolutely the nation exactly as soon as the bomber is made that it might be a sense that something is how can he pushed the. if you negotiate with what is

going to be given a conditional ground well you certainly raise an interesting point about asserting many heads and bobbing up and down saying well what is going on with the timing of it all washington isn't wasting any time reminding us that it knew absolutely nothing about this as a former intelligence officer how likely is it that no one really knew about the investigation. but i'm sure plausible deniability would be built into the whole system but actually i think it is quite likely that senior politicians might not have known what was going on in the background of the intelligence agencies and that's something that could easily lead paid tensions can you see where politicians like to say they will in fact what's going on in this part are kept in the state but in fact very often they can be lied to right quickly by the f.b.i. agents and in fact all the top spies on the record say that they they are shames that they won't be oversight committee opponents and one of the possibilities around tracing the our own altitudes might be that there's something a power play goal behind the scenes within the cia because the transport came in to

help the cia as a military outsider so he comes from a great culture it was probably very unpopular we couldn't see how he could be pushing for action against iraq when the cia for the last nine years has been saying that actually there is no intelligence whatsoever to indicate there were obviously for instance the kind of thing we need to get weapons so they may well have been some sort of maneuvering behind the scenes by other senior intelligence officers to try and get rid of someone that they would see as an outsider who is peddling a line which they don't agree with and which undermines that special status ability and it's certainly a conversation that requires much more time than we have available for us here on our team today for m i five intelligence officer great pleasure to have you on the program thank you thank you. civil conflict in syria sending strong ripples across the border we report from lebanon just turned into a sectarian power to cake because of the bloody civil war ongoing right on its doorstep. it is ten year change at the top we look at the challenges facing the

growing economy and whether the new leaders can talk with them this much more but i'll be off to a short break. catalonia wants to get its independence from the rest of spain locals feel that madrid texas all of catalonia economic success is a way putting the region into debt trust me working hard only to have it all taxed away is very aggravating i can see why people are frustrated but the people who want independence have a very odd slogan catalonia a new european state so let me get this straight you want independence but you want to stay in the e.u. is that what you mean what exactly would that change that's not really gaining independence that shifting dependencies stay in the e.u. means you won't have control of your borders you'll still be on the euro so you

won't have your own currency you will be able to establish your trade standards those will be dictated to you by brussels and if you don't like the austerity measures from outsiders like in madrid then you might want have a conversation with the greeks because being an independent country in the e.u. won't save you from people messing with your finances all i'm saying is that big truly independent means answer to no one not madrid not brussels but that's just my opinion. you know sometimes you see a story and it seems so you think you understand it and then you glimpse something else you hear sees some other part of it and realize everything you thought you knew you don't know i'm tom harpur welcome to the big picture.

we speak your language. programs and documentaries in arabic it's all here on. reporting from the world talks about six of the p.r.p. interviews intriguing stories for you. in troy arabic to find out more visit our big. thank you for joining us here on r t today on rory suchet a full international backing for syria's rebels potentially meaning more foreign cash and something the newly formed opposition coalition is struggling to achieve for the gulf monarchies who pushed for the new set up rush to proclaim it as the sole syrian people's representative but the wider arab league bloc doesn't quite see it that way a middle east correspondent has this report. six the gulf states have formally

recognized the new syrian coalition as the official representative of the syrian people the foreign minister of qatar has said that this recognition will remove obstacles that will ultimately be able to secure arms for syrian rebels the coalition does look set to set up a so-called government in exile if indeed this happens this will have the backing of western as well as arab states there are fears that this could set up a libya style scenario what we saw in there was opposition fighters sitting themselves up as an alternative government that got the backing of the international community and ultimately led to nato airstrikes and foreign intervention so there are concerns that that might happen here in syria there was also a number question about just how feasible of the spa position group is really we're looking at a patchwork of various organizations here it is made up of the rebel fighters as

well as dissidents and people from all backgrounds and political affiliations it has been marred by bickering over the past few weeks and months indeed this is an organization that does not have internal unity what is important is that the arab league that is no should be one of the most important bodies in the arab world has his attorney welcomed this new coalition it does say that it is a primary to negotiate it but it has been off on as far as to say that it is the legitimate representative of the syrian people and the political analyst alou rockwell says the syrians would never want an opposition formed on the gulf and american pressure in order. to see that this collection of corrupt dictatorships is instructing the syrian people as to who their representatives ought to be about the representatives of the saudi arabian people the bahraini and people or people of qatar or charger or the rest of these dictatorships so what did i. that there the

course there just a subsidiary of the pentagon and of the cia this is part of the long term plot by the u.s. by britain by france by turkey by israel and i'm no fan of assad i might say but. the good things are watch words after gadhafi in libya they're going to be much worse if they succeed in overthrowing assad but its opposition group was trained in turkey at various american air force bases there are many of them are libyan al qaeda types other from other countries they're not syrians they're foreign fighters whatever is wrong with assad i think that the people of syria tend not to want outsiders to be telling them what to do they fear these so-called rebels just as much as they fear their own government and my guess is they don't want foreigners occupying and running their country. now as syria's bloody standoff has exposed deep political under-secretary and cracks in neighboring lebanon with gun battles springing up daily in the northern part of the state. reports from

a nation hit by fierce clashes between warring groups. they share a determination to fight to the death but this isn't syria it's lebanon the conflict has crept across the border leading to death and destruction here in tripoli we're standing here you can see the almost complete destruction of a home and this is literally the front line of the. neighborhood in tripoli right across the street out the window that's the bubbletop in a neighborhood where the largely sunni community has been has been clashing with the largely allawi community that is based here it's actually not very safe for us to stand here we've been told by the owner of this apartment that they're still taking casualties in the fighting could really flare out at any moment out of range of the snipers we speak to the homeowner and allawi militia man the misery has only hardened his resolve to fight against neighbors who he says pose a mortal threat. these people have one objective and that is to have an islam.

emirate in the north and militia organizations like hezbollah we won't give up arms as long as thought exists and. this is been a flashpoint for years a sunni stronghold next door to an alawite community but strife in syria has unleashed new sectarian tensions leading to the worst fighting since lebanon's civil war ali food is the spokesperson for the arab democratic party which has its own loyal militia here in. the asad regime falls that this area will turn into a dangerous product this is what we're trying to avoid. i asked him whether disarming might be an option to avoid more bloodshed. but we're not afraid while we were filming the lebanese army was overseeing a shaky cease fire but the sandbags are still out awaiting the next battle we're in that bubbled up a neighborhood as you can see behind me that is the area where the gunfire was coming down here people have been killed on both sides of the since you can see

this is one of the fighting positions this street preacher has a sunni militia here in tripoli as bubble to ben a slum to have evolved with these guns. showing off his guns he says he's ready to use them again at a moment's notice. we are ready to defend ourselves and to fight for. sheikh masri accuses the syrian government of fermenting violence against the sunni's and that's why he says support for the uprising goes far beyond empathy. systems to the free syrian army then would do it within our capabilities isn't that really if it is possible to give them a gun and some bullets then we're happy. however the syrian war plays out it's clear that the outcome will have repercussions far beyond its borders in tripoli the battle lines have been drawn and neither side seems willing to back down lucy caffein of r.t. tripoli lebanon. well bouts of retaliatory fire and appeals for nato protection

good article from you can find out how israel and turkey are coping with syria's cross border fire but seeing both states dragged into the conflict right next door . the german chancellor received an angry greeting in portugal when she came to support austerity measures gripping the country enraged crowds demonstrated in the streets claiming i'm glad for the financial pain they continue to go through as artie's sarah fourth reports many question why something that failed in other countries should be promised to work in portugal. these measures have been killing is there to give us no future it's only for carriage and employment and misery so many people are becoming desperate that it's almost like a visceral reaction a visceral reaction to these measures people of god getting angrier and angrier angela merkel says it supports the goal may have been meant as a sign of support for this seemed only to serve to highlight the british.

protesters message loud and clear way testers standing off against the riot police at the site that's become very familiar protest gatherings in europe but perhaps not so familiar the portugal here until recently have been much more tolerant of the strict austerity measures that have been imposed on them but as you can see here portugal's patience is really running out with record levels of unemployment now at fifteen percent and the country about and trysts third year of recession is becoming apparent the country persons has hate could be a southern european success story smell struggling to survive we talk about cuts to jobs we talk about the search measures what does it mean to be living through that right now in portugal it means they don't see any future for my child we are getting angry because the government don't care.

about people put two bills not alone of course these stories of hardship or all across the usa in brussels finance ministers it desperately trying to come up with a way to pull greece back from the brink of bankruptcy with athens having just approved yet another round of cuts this is the cool few of the speech if it comes to the greek political class like the rest of the year. in a sense i think christine the. prisoner of the you're not you're watching this sort. all the cheap. oil. will. do things which by any rational measure but obviously counterproductive in order to preserve the european project the euro in particular they are determined to do everything to keep the single currency act even to destroy their own country and we've greece's

economic straits people are questioning why portugal mostly the same rate the same many economists say it's deemed to end in failure. r.t. there's been. violence going in some other more world news now and the man described as osama bin laden's right hand man is being freed to walk the streets of britain a judge released a radical muslim cleric of all picardy has already spent seven years in detention without charge of britain wrestles with its human rights obligations like a tired as what of in his native jordan on terrorism charges european rules forbid extraditing to people the places where they won't get a free trial but the deputy prime ministers to get the cleric kicked out supervising could cost british taxpayers five million pounds a year. palestinians have reportedly started work to open the grave of yasser

arafat the body of the iconic acts leader is being exuma for a murder for the preparations which include removing concrete from arafat's mausoleum are expected to last for at least fifteen days his remains will be examined by an international team of forensic experts and it claims he was poisoned by radioactive polonium. now china is set to name its new senior politicians including the man expected to succeed the current president hu jintao the national congress of the ruling communist party is in its final days in beijing with much focus on the challenges facing the growing economy one of the toughest is actually from its own state controlled corporations according to hong kong political analyst professor joseph. china has certainly be due been doing very well you know terms of economic role but at the moment is the economic growth model may reach this spate of diminishing returns you certainly faces severe talent is there

and the consensus on the economic reforms is strong there's genuine agreement on what needs to be done but at the same time as severe recession from vested interest for example to state the the big state owned enterprises a lot of infrastructural you know spend projects a steel one a lot of credit from the state owned bands and so on. after the break here on r t r lauren lister looks at why lenders are intent on piling the pain on greece and what's ahead for america's exhausted economy capital account coming your way next.

sigrid leverage or your mccurry was able to build the world's most sophisticated robot which on fortunately doesn't give a darn about anything tunes mission to teach creation why it should care about humans and. this is why you should care only on the r.-g. dot com. browsers. looks like a shadow of. a miss it's in ways a nanny has daycare my daddy. a lot of those and. does a famous reuse benson play was oh my saved and does my mammy ransom business.

good afternoon welcome to capital account i'm lauren lyster here in washington d.c. these are your headlines for monday november twelfth two thousand and twelve what happens when you take your medicine you've endured the pain but your sickness doesn't go away well you might want to ask greece out then passed a new austerity budget they committed to public sector cuts privatization measures book grazes careening towards its sixth year of economic contraction that is six years of depression we'll get a report on the ground by greek journalist be honest paleologos live from athens and the international energy agency says the u.s. is on track to become the world's top oil producer in two thousand and seventeen and most entirely be energy self-sufficient by two thousand and thirty five what is this forecast dependent on and what does this mean for the energy outlook and for so many political talking points we've heard over the years like this. we're still addicted to foreign oil president obama in washington.